Kinetics of adaptive immune responses after administering mRNA-Based COVID-19 vaccination in individuals with and without prior SARS-CoV-2 infections

OBJECTIVE: We aimed to compare the adaptive immune response in individuals with or without prior SARS-CoV-2 infections following the administration of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines. METHODS: A total of 54 participants with ages ranging from 37 to 56 years old, consisting of 23 individuals without a history of SARS-CoV-2 infection (uninfected group) and 31 individuals with prior infection of SARS-CoV-2 (infected group) who have received two doses of mRNA SARS-CoV-2 vaccines were enrolled in this study. We measured the IFN-γ level upon administration of BNT162b2 (PF) or mRNA-1273 (MO) by QuantiFERON SARS-CoV-2. The production of neutralizing antibodies was evaluated by a surrogate virus neutralization assay, and the neutralizing capacity was assessed by a plaque reduction neutralization test (PRNT(50)). The immune response was compared between the two groups. RESULTS: A significantly higher level of IFN-γ (p < 0.001) and neutralization antibodies (p < 0.001) were observed in the infected group than those in the uninfected group following the first administration of vaccines. The infected group demonstrated a significantly higher PRNT(50) titer than the uninfected group against the Wuhan strain (p < 0.0001). Still, the two groups were not significantly different against Delta (p = 0.07) and Omicron (p = 0.14) variants. Following the second vaccine dose, T- and B-cell levels were not significantly increased in the infected group. CONCLUSION: A single dose of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines would boost immune responses in individuals who had previously contracted SARS-CoV-2. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12879-023-08728-5.